Lupine Wilma 6

I ordered and received the new 830 lumen Lupine Wilma 6 from Gretna bikes. I charged it up, programmed it for tri-level, and tested it on a short ride. I decided to test out how long the battery would last this afternoon. Note that I didn't recharge the battery after the ride.

Lupine says the Wilma 6 is supposed to last 4 hours at 100%. It's was 5:52 hours before the red led finally went on. The light was still going, but I need to go to sleep and get up early tomorrow. This was on top of a short 30 minute test ride last week. Freaking amazing!

I was going to get the Wilma 4, but I wanted more than 2.45 hours of 100% light. 4 hours at 100% was overkill, but I thought the difference in price justified my safety. Lupine is very conservative so the Wilma 4 probably would have fitted my needs.

I ordered and received the new 830 lumen Lupine Wilma 6 from Gretna bikes. I charged it up, programmed it for tri-level, and tested it on a short ride. I decided to test out how long the battery would last this afternoon. Note that I didn't recharge the battery after the ride.

Lupine says the Wilma 6 is supposed to last 4 hours at 100%. It's was 5:52 hours before the red led finally went on. The light was still going, but I need to go to sleep and get up early tomorrow. This was on top of a short 30 minute test ride last week. Freaking amazing!

I was going to get the Wilma 4, but I wanted more than 2.45 hours of 100% light. 4 hours at 100% was overkill, but I thought the difference in price justified my safety. Lupine is very conservative so the Wilma 4 probably would have fitted my needs.

Has anyone out there test how long their Wilma 4 burned for?

I think a fairer test is with air flow over the light. I am pretty sure the light dims to prevent over heating. Bung a fan next to it hehe.

To echo the previous poster...

As the lights heat up, the LEDs voltage requirements drop (and their output and lifespan also drop, the output will improve with cooling, but getting them too hot regularly will hurt their lifespan, negligible in this application though really, anyhow...) so as their voltage drops due to heat, the circuit needs less voltage to maintain it, so your runtime will increase (keeping in mind the output is dimmer)...
And as mentioned, if there is thermal regulation circuitry, as the light heats up, that will kick in and reduce the current being sent to the LEDs (to protect them from the lifespan problem or totally overheating them), so that will increase runtime, again at the cost of brightness...

So as mentioned, test with a decent airflow over them, and see what your runtimes are, they still may be longer than advertised, it seems LED bikelight makers are being more honest (and conservative) about runtimes nowadays, compared to the old halogen days where advertised runtimes seemed to be pretty much until you couldn't see the bulb glowing in the socket anymore from some of them.

Also, keep in mind a LiIon battery loses about 10% per year (in regular usage) of it's capacity due to aging effects (industry working on it, but that's a "nominal" figure), and many battery makers consider them to have a 2-year lifespan at which point they'll have 80% of original life, so if it's a 4.2hr capable battery, times 0.8 = 3.36 hrs at the end of year two, so being conservative and saying "3.5hr lifetime" up front makes a very happy customer upfront when their light runs 4+ hours on full, and keeps them happy when they are still getting the advertised runtime a year or two later. Just some thoughts, don't know what critera Lupine uses to decide their advertised runtime.

I had a fan running blowing cool air over the lights all the time during this test. I don't think the light dimmed at all, until the amber, orange, and red LEDs switched on. There was a momentary dimming (light telling me it switched LEDs) and then it came back up.

Originally Posted by Stuart B

I think a fairer test is with air flow over the light. I am pretty sure the light dims to prevent over heating. Bung a fan next to it hehe.

I had a fan running blowing cool air over the lights all the time during this test. I don't think the light dimmed at all, until the amber, orange, and red LEDs switched on. There was a momentary dimming (light telling me it switched LEDs) and then it came back up.

Thats good news then. Looks like they really are conservative with their run time quotes.

Also, keep in mind a LiIon battery loses about 10% per year (in regular usage) of it's capacity due to aging effects (industry working on it, but that's a "nominal" figure), and many battery makers consider them to have a 2-year lifespan at which point they'll have 80% of original life, so if it's a 4.2hr capable battery, times 0.8 = 3.36 hrs at the end of year two, so being conservative and saying "3.5hr lifetime" up front makes a very happy customer upfront when their light runs 4+ hours on full, and keeps them happy when they are still getting the advertised runtime a year or two later. Just some thoughts, don't know what critera Lupine uses to decide their advertised runtime.

Wow, good info there! I had no idea LiIon batteries suffered from that affliction. Are the premium LG cells more exempt from these conditions or does the 10% apply unilaterally across the board for all batteries of the LiIOn ilk manufacturing processes? Any idea if LiPo batteries suffer the same fate?

Wow, good info there! I had no idea LiIon batteries suffered from that affliction. Are the premium LG cells more exempt from these conditions or does the 10% apply unilaterally across the board for all batteries of the LiIOn ilk manufacturing processes? Any idea if LiPo batteries suffer the same fate?

From what I understand all Li-Ion batteries apply to that 10%, but I don't know about Li-Po, because we don't deal with them.